In the continuing browser wars, 2011 was a bad year for Microsoft and Mozilla …

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The browser story in December mirrored the broader 2011 trends. After a surprising result in November, in which it held steady, Internet Explorer resumed normal service in December, with its market share continuing to fall. Chrome once more made gains, closing the gap with rival Firefox.

The story for 2011 as a whole was much the same. Internet Explorer lost 7.39 points of desktop market share over the course of the year. Firefox also fell over the year, losing 1.86 points in total. These browsers' losses were WebKit's gain: the two major WebKit-based browsers, Chrome and Safari, gained 8.75 and 0.95 points respectively. Opera too fell over the course of the year, finishing 2011 0.61 points lower than it closed 2010.

Chrome has become the alternative browser of choice. Firefox's growth at Internet Explorer's expense has been halted and now reversed, with large numbers of users defecting from both Microsoft's and Mozilla's browsers. Strong promotion, robust upgrading, and vigorous grassroots promotion of the browser have resulted in rapid adoption that shows no signs of slowing.

Though Chrome's automatic updates remain the best in the browser industry, its pool of non-upgrading users continues to be a significant feature. About 15 percent of Chrome users are using a version that's at least two versions old. Though they only represent a small fraction of total Internet usage at the moment, this straggler demographic will grow as Chrome does.

Uptake of Firefox 8 appears to be going well, with users of the old Firefox 3.6 slowly moving away from that platform. Firefox too seems to have a straggler problem, again with about 15 percent of users on the "rapid release" track (versions 4 and higher) using an out-of-date version.

Microsoft is no stranger to the non-upgrading demographic, with considerable numbers of people using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 in spite of the availability of versions 8 and 9. The situation may start to improve shortly. Announced in mid-December, Microsoft is going to start shipping Internet Explorer as an automatic update to Windows Update users. Previously, Internet Explorer was an automatic update that required manual intervention to actually install; Windows Update would start an installation wizard that required the user to click through to install the browser. That wizard process has now been eliminated.

This month, users in Australia and Brazil will start to pick up the browser automatically. Assuming the rollout goes smoothly, Microsoft will expand the automatic deployments to other markets. Even when the switch is thrown globally, not all systems will be upgraded. Administrators will be able to block installation, and users who have previously rejected the upgrade won't have their systems updated.

Nonetheless, this is a highly welcome change that should go a long way towards moving Internet Explorer users forward. Progress on that front is encouraging. Internet Explorer 6 saw a surprising increase in usage in November, but normal service was resumed in December, with both Internet Explorer 6 and 7 dropping to new lows of 7.66 and 4.87 percent, respectively.

In the US, usage of IE6 dropped below 1 percent for the first time since its 2001 release. The Czech Republic, Mexico, Portugal, Philippines, and Ukraine also hit the 1 percent threshold last month. These countries are joining an elite group of countries—Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, and Sweden—in which Internet Explorer 6 has below 1 percent of the market. Bringing up the rear is China, where the ancient browser still holds 25.2 percent of the market.

Our usage here at Ars showed small drops for Internet Explorer and Firefox, with small gains for Safari and Chrome. In mobile, the Android browser edged ahead of mobile Safari.

And then there are the weirdos like me that use Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Though admittedly, I really only rely on Chrome for sites needing flash since it has the plugin built-in; which allows me to keep it off my system for the other two.

Firefox is my general-use browser. I surf most sites without flash or javascript on (thanks to noscript). When necessary I can right-click on a page and open it in either of the other browsers, thanks to another plugin.

lets not confuse things. Opera MINI is the J2ME browser that pass most of the workload over to Opera run proxy servers. Opera MOBILE is a full browser on par with Safari Mobile, Firefox Mobile or Android browser. Btw, Opera Mini can have a solid impact on data usage. My install claims 90% reduction so far.

I gave chrome about 5 minutes when it was new. I didn't like the search/url bar or (what I see as) the lack of configuration ability, compared to FF.

I use firefox because I like it. I have my plugins, I have my comfort with it. It doesn't mess with my bookmarks or my addons (anymore).

I'd like to hear from some of Chrome's more articulate evangelicals: why do you like it, and what makes you recommend it to others?

Chrome's search/url bar is quite jarring to new users, especially when it came out, because at that time IE and Firefox both had thick IE6,7,8 style toolbars. Now it is much more commonplace and the search/url bar together is really a boon to efficiency - no need to differentiate between the two. It also integrated well with Google Search Instant, which is something Firefox extensions do not do with comparable fluidity.

The new firefox interface is much like that of chrome, so you probably won't have many problems now. The chrome extensions are of high quality even though they are not as powerful as the firefox ones. In fact, I switched from chrome to firefox due to the more powerful addons, but switched back because the chrome addons were generally better updated (such as Google Voice). Also, chrome extensions hardly slow down the browser, which is the main reason I do not use Firefox. On my 5 year old $1400 dollar laptop, chrome runs very smoothly, as do most apps, but Firefox does not. I think this is somewhat due to the fact that Chrome is a native linux GTK+ app, while Firefox relies on a custom set of widgets. With addons, I have found chrome to have faster browsing speed and especially startup time on all systems. It also has built in flash, which crashes less often than the Adobe plugin, at least in my experience.

Though admittedly, I really only rely on Chrome for sites needing flash since it has the plugin built-in; which allows me to keep it off my system for the other two.

I do the same and have to wonder how even 15% avoid upgrading Chrome. I rarely use it and a quick check shows it's already upgraded itself to version 16. Besides kiosks, which are probably dominated by IE or Firefox anyway, are these people consciously deciding not to upgrade?

lets not confuse things. Opera MINI is the J2ME browser that pass most of the workload over to Opera run proxy servers. Opera MOBILE is a full browser on par with Safari Mobile, Firefox Mobile or Android browser. Btw, Opera Mini can have a solid impact on data usage. My install claims 90% reduction so far.

I'd like to hear from some of Chrome's more articulate evangelicals: why do you like it, and what makes you recommend it to others?

I don't know if I am that level of supporter but I do love it. The way it's designed seems intuitive to me. It's always fast. Though there are a few main points that keep me using it and why I recommend it.

It renders web pages differently then Firefox and IE, they look different. Pages look better in Chrome, the gamma seems to be slightly higher then FF and the text lighter, yet easy to read. Same for IE, but IE looks better then FF and on some sites better then Chrome to me. Then there are sites like AICN for example where text in FF shows up much smaller and almost double bold'ed which looks very bad.

It does not lag for me like Firefox sometimes does. Like for instance when I load ARS in FF after doing a CCleaner run, it will occasionally cause the browser to become unresponsive, I can't drag the window or load another tab. It happens with other sites as well. It is very annoying.

I love how it takes up screen real estate. I have FF at 9.01 and in it the top part takes up more viewing space then Chrome yet provides less functionality unless I turn on Menu Bar, but that then extends it down even more and looks really out of place. IE 9 is better then Chrome in this regard, except I much prefer Chrome's longer address bar, and the general look of it with its rounded edge and folders for tabs. I also like the Add Ons I can use in Chrome, which I know are in FF, but not in IE, and I like how easy they are to find and run.

So to recap, the visual style is better for me, the exceptionally high speed and responsiveness, the lack of issues, the better rendering of web pages I commonly visit, and the add on support.

If it was not for the Add Ons, I think I would quite like using IE 9, it is very fast and renders well, but no Ad Block just kills it for me.

I like Opera the best. It's fast (faster than Chrome when I've tested in Sunspider, though only by about 10ms total.) and works well. It allows sidebar tabs, and while there's no tree-style tab addon (the one thing I miss from firefox) it's good enough. Chrome only has tabs on top, which is a massive waste of space with a widescreen monitor.

I'd like to hear from some of Chrome's more articulate evangelicals: why do you like it, and what makes you recommend it to others?

For me, it's fast and it's clean. I handles more tabs better than FF does now (well, if you have plenty of RAM), and that matters to me, as I frequently can have 70 tabs over 4+ windows open(that is not a normal workload, just peaks).

I like Opera the best. It's fast (faster than Chrome when I've tested in Sunspider, though only by about 10ms total.) and works well. It allows sidebar tabs, and while there's no tree-style tab addon (the one thing I miss from firefox) it's good enough. Chrome only has tabs on top, which is a massive waste of space with a widescreen monitor.

I like Opera the best. It's fast (faster than Chrome when I've tested in Sunspider, though only by about 10ms total.) and works well. It allows sidebar tabs, and while there's no tree-style tab addon (the one thing I miss from firefox) it's good enough. Chrome only has tabs on top, which is a massive waste of space with a widescreen monitor.

In Opera there is a tree-style tab-like option. It is the "Window" sidebar. Usually this on is hidden, but it is easily shown. I haven't used the firefox addon, but this might be what you were looking for.

Firefox's growth at Internet Explorer's expense has been halted and now reversed, with large numbers of users defecting from both Microsoft's and Mozilla's browsers.

Do we have actual numbers showing this? I'm honestly curious. For IE, the decline is so fast that clearly users must be leaving in large numbers, but Firefox has been losing market share very slowly, slower than the web is growing. My best guess is that Firefox is growing in absolute number of users, while losing market share because the competition is taking most of the growth. Does anyone measure user "churn", that is, not just number of users, but how many users were gained and lost (in other words, gaining 10 users looks the same as gaining 30 and losing 20, if you just look at the total usage numbers).

Or you can copy the bookmark from one folder and paste it into another manually. I had to do that when FF started "disappearing" duplicates in different folders. Ex: I have a bookmark folder for each day of the week and some webcomics update MWF. Instead of bookmarking the same site three times (one for each folder), I could bookmark it in the Monday folder and then copy/paste it into the Wed and Fri folders.

Did no one notice the weird spikes in October on the Worldwide Browser Share graph? This spike is also in another graph (http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-m ... pcustomb=1) from Net Applications, where the Opera Mini curve is actually labeled Java ME. iOS went way up, and Opera Mini/Java ME went way down in October. I've seen this graph in a few different articles, with no mentions of this strange spike, but something is obviously wrong here.

After seeing a lot of these 'Chrome is gaining share' articles, I still can't understand why nobody seems to have noticed that the amount of Chrome users may not be based on a preference-I work in a support tech/repair workshop role and I see a lot of users comig through with no idea of which browser they have or if there is any real difference between the big 4. Most that have Chrome have usually had it installed via bundling with OEM bloatware or some random little toolbar/app etc that they didn't even know they had installed (let alone use), and many of those have Safari and Firefox installed as well, and wouldn't have the slightest idea which browser was better/worse/more secure etc. I personally think that until the bundling is regulated or the percentages are weighted appropriately, at the very we at least need a disclaimer added to the stats for clarification. I know this may sound a bit whiny but I feel that it has introduced a variable that hasn't been addressed.

Thanks for the link there, and yes, its awesome news that everyone should be celebrating.

My only wish is some of the less popular browsers pick up steam somehow. I'd rather see a lot of browsers with decent followings rather less with very large followings. Safety in diversity and all that.

I use FF with Google Toolbar. I'd like to switch to Chrome, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my Google Bookmarks into Chrome (you'd think it'd be obvious, but I've wasted way too much effort on this already). The bookmarks are stored in my Google Acct, and I can't figure out how to sync them with Chrome (the sync feature don't import the bookmarks from my account when I sign in - People point towards extensions such as Xmarks, which I don't want).

I'd like to hear from some of Chrome's more articulate evangelicals: why do you like it, and what makes you recommend it to others?

.

excellent, invisible patching process; I've a high degree of confidence that the browser is patched up to date.

The multiprocess model means that with multiple tabs open you get good use out of multicore processors, unlike Firefox. Similarly, when opening a folder full of bookmarks in individual tabs, the multiple rendering processes means all the cores on my quad core machine are properly busy.

The combination of bundled flash player and pdf reader with the prompt patching process means I don't have to worry about keeping up with flash and acrobat reader updates to have a secure browsing experience. There's a flash block add on if if I don't want flash running without permission.

The built in spell checker. One less thing to have to set up on a machine I'm using temporarily, and with the move to web based applications, it's essential to have this to maintain a professional appearance.

The process manager so if I've hundreds of tabs open it is easy to track down specific CPU hogging tabs and kill them to save laptop battery for example, yet when I need to interact with them again, I typically just need to reload them

Chrome, IE and FF have pros and cons. For me, Chrome has the fewest significant cons, followed by FF. IE I only use if I can't use either of the other two.

If it was not for the Add Ons, I think I would quite like using IE 9, it is very fast and renders well, but no Ad Block just kills it for me.

I thought the exact same thing until 10 minutes ago. I was curious and found there is an adblocker for IE. Simple Adblock From 30 seconds of usage, it seems to work, though it's a free version of a "pro" offering, so there's a catch hanging somewhere.

I use FF with Google Toolbar. I'd like to switch to Chrome, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my Google Bookmarks into Chrome (you'd think it'd be obvious, but I've wasted way too much effort on this already). The bookmarks are stored in my Google Acct, and I can't figure out how to sync them with Chrome (the sync feature don't import the bookmarks from my account when I sign in - People point towards extensions such as Xmarks, which I don't want).

"1. Sign in to your Google Account by clicking Sign In on the Toolbar.2. Click the down arrow next to the Bookmarks button.3. Select Manage All.4. Select the Tools menu in the uper right-hand corner.5. Select Export as Bookmarks.6. Save the file.

Importing to Google Chrome:

1. Click the Tools menu in Google Chrome.2. Select Bookmark manager.3. Click the Tools menu in the manager.4. Select Import bookmarks.5. Select the HTML file saved from the first step, then click Open."

I use mostly IE9 at work, with the occasional Firefox when IE has hiccups. It's all Safari at home as they finally enable extensions and I like the way it integrates on my devices, though I don't think it's the best overall at everything, but it does good for what I need it for. Not a big fan of Chrome, the interface still looks beta to me. Prefer IE 9, if it just had adblock it would be killer

I've been a web developer for 15 years, and can honestly say it's a lot easier to pick out the most terrible browser family than it is to pick out the best. The business case alone for IE6+ makes it a losing proposition and it boggles my mind that even later versions of the software have survived in the presence of faster, more mature offerings (I'm not a gambling man, but I'm willing to bet that the amount of time and money companies have sunk into making their offerings compatible with Microsoft browsers could be expressed as a percentage of the national debt) . It's an interesting topic and one I'd love to see an Ars tackle.

As for picking the best browser, opinions among my colleagues and I vary. In the windows world, it's a close draw between FF and Chrome, with the only real differentiating factor being developer preference. FF has the benefit of age; it shows through mature development tools and deeper integration with 3rd party test suites. Also, when FF was born all those years ago, it inherited a bit of the Apple complex -- the underdog, the rebel, the brave David who would stand up to Microsoft. I don't know how much that last bit counts any more as FF gets more mainstream, but I do know that it bred a sense of community and loyalty that makes older web devs hesitant to leave.

#1 is speed. Mind-numbing, soul-crushing speed.#2 is webkit. I sleep better at night knowing that if my stuff looks good in Chrome, I stand a reasonably good chance that it's going to look good in all webkit-based browsers. I guess I've gotten soft in my old age, but you can't buy reassurance like that in this game.

Y'know, maybe as someone that genuinely dislikes Chrome, I'm being sensitive, but Firefox is still the alternative browser of choice until Chrome actually, y'know, overtakes it?

It's a horse race article. Fair enough - but the horse that is catching up is not in first place. It's making gains. And there's a very sloppy editorial thought process that keeps trying to push that horse into first place.

I have never quite understood why the whole "browser wars" thing happened. MS don't make any money out of it. Netscape/Mozilla do not either. I totally understand the need for choice, and I am glad there is more than there was.I am a web developer (on a PC) and so I use Firefox because it has very useful extensions. Otherwise I would use Chrome because its fast simple and sleek. There remains no reason at all to use MSIE as far as I can see.

Did no one notice the weird spikes in October on the Worldwide Browser Share graph? This spike is also in another graph (http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-m ... pcustomb=1) from Net Applications, where the Opera Mini curve is actually labeled Java ME. iOS went way up, and Opera Mini/Java ME went way down in October. I've seen this graph in a few different articles, with no mentions of this strange spike, but something is obviously wrong here.

I was hoping someone could explain the same thing. It's a weird spike. I can't think why iOS and Android usage would both shoot up like that for one month, then go back down, and the similar temporary drop in Opera usage doesn't look large enough to cancel them out, so there must be some other data that isn't on the graph.

(Was there a problem with Opera that month that forced people to switch to their stock browsers or something? Seems unlikely, and wouldn't account for all of the spikes.)

Maybe something happened in October that meant people with Android and iOS were more likely to be browsing the web than people using other mobile browsers.

(Or maybe the way the data is collected is prone to reporting false anomalies. Always a possibility.)

Did no one notice the weird spikes in October on the Worldwide Browser Share graph? This spike is also in another graph (http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-m ... pcustomb=1) from Net Applications, where the Opera Mini curve is actually labeled Java ME. iOS went way up, and Opera Mini/Java ME went way down in October. I've seen this graph in a few different articles, with no mentions of this strange spike, but something is obviously wrong here.

I was hoping someone could explain the same thing. It's a weird spike. I can't think why iOS and Android usage would both shoot up like that for one month, then go back down, and the similar temporary drop in Opera usage doesn't look large enough to cancel them out, so there must be some other data that isn't on the graph.

(Was there a problem with Opera that month that forced people to switch to their stock browsers or something? Seems unlikely, and wouldn't account for all of the spikes.)

Maybe something happened in October that meant people with Android and iOS were more likely to be browsing the web than people using other mobile browsers.

(Or maybe the way the data is collected is prone to reporting false anomalies. Always a possibility.)

The only explanation that I can think of is that the iPhone 4S was released in October, as was ICS and the Galaxy Nexus.